47

CHAPTER IV

TRANSPORTING THE STONE

The Union Canal

During the Berst ownership of quarry #1 in the 1850’s, stone from this pit was

used to enlarge locks on the Union Canal. In fact it was this event and the simultaneous

building of the Lebanon Valley Railroad (bought by the Philadelphia and Reading

Railroad) that brought the stone to the attention of local contractors. Prior to the building

of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad the Union Canal was one of the earliest and

most important methods of transporting the finished stone from Hummelstown. Stone

was hauled from the sawmill on Second Street to the canal dock at the west end of

Hummelstown and sent to other locations. Some of Allen Walton’s earliest reports to the

Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company dealt with canal

transportation.

I have sold some blocks to ship to Wm. Struthers & Sons to be shipped by canal. Also have an order to send a boat load of rough stone to Mr. Dobbins, but cannot ship it without a derrick at the canal. I have had some correspondence with the superintendent of the canal about freighting stone to Philadelphia. Enclosed you will find the answer, they offer to deliver it to Philadelphia at $2.35 per ton. Mr. C. (Christian) Hershey has agreed to haul one boat load for .90 cents per ton, & I have agreed to furnish one boat load for $5.25 per ton.1 We couldn’t ship by canal on account of low water, and Swarthmore College is not ready for sawed stone & they have no way to take them off the cars.2

1 “Superintendent’s Report to the Directors of the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company,”

Nov. 8, 1869, Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

2 Loc. cit., Sept. 5, 1869.

48

Considering the fact that the Lebanon Valley Railroad had been completed ten years

earlier in 1859, it is surprising that Walton was calling upon the service of the Union

Canal at all. The only reason for choosing canal transportation over rail was cost. It is

evident that in the late 1860’s it was still cheaper if less predictable to transport by water.

The above constitute the few direct references for using the canal as a means of

transporting the stone, and since the sawmill of the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone

Company was adjacent to the tracks of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, it must be

assumed that rail swiftly became the preferred method of shipping the stone after 1859.

Teamsters

One reason that the brownstone quarries in Portland, Connecticut, thrived was

their proximity to the Connecticut River. Fleets of shallow draft schooners called

Brownstoners were loaded with stone and then towed down river to the sound where they

set sail for coastal cities on the eastern seaboard.3 Would that the location of the

Hummelstown brownstone pits been so fortuitous.

The Hummelstown quarries are isolated from the borough by the South Mountain

which is the defining southern rim of the Lebanon Valley. Prior to the building of the

Brownstone - Middletown Railroad in 1891, all stone leaving the quarries for the sawmill

in town had to be transported over the considerable grade of this ridge on

Quarry/Waltonville Road by four or six horse or mule team driven wagons. This

isolation of the sawmill from the quarries was done to avoid breakage of finished stone in

3 Alison C. Guiness, The Portland Brownstone Quarries, an unpublished thesis as part of a grant

from The Rockwell Corporation, Middletown, Connecticut, p. 66, 1987.

49

D-1: Teamster’s Wagon – Notice the diameter of the rear wheel in comparison to the height of Allen K.

Walton standing next to the wagon

the event of a teamster accident. These wagons were best described in the December,

1907, issue of the trade magazine, Stone:

Another quaint memorial of the early days of quarrying in this vicinity is furnished at Brownstone, which is the name given to the Reading Railway station in Hummelstown. Drawn up alongside the track, like honored veterans, are the old wagons that were used to haul the stone from the quarries before the railroad was built. These are massive vehicles of hewn oak. On the side of one of the wagons is a tool box, on which some dead and gone blacksmith has lavished loving care in hand forged trimmings. There are elaborate hinges and hasps and a band across the front bears the initials, “M. H. R.” and “G. H. R.” and the date, “1816.” There are also ornaments in the forms of hearts, harps, and crosses.4

One of the most active teamsters for the company was a medical doctor, Jacob

Shope of Hummelstown, who also owned a hardware and pharmacy which supplied the

quarries with many goods.5 His first arrangement with the company reimbursed him

eight cents/cubic foot of stone hauled to

the mill. However, on April 1, 1868, he

notified Louis Brown, the treasurer, that

he had contacted Thomas Fox, the

superintendent, informing him that the

company would have to hire a hand to

help him load and unload the stone or he

would have to charge ten cents/cubic foot for his services so that he might hire a helper.

The company attempted a compromise by offering nine cents/cubic foot whereupon

4 Stone, “Hummelstown Brownstone”, Frank A. Lent Pub., New York, December 1907. p. 402

5 Account of the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company with Dr. Jacob Shope, 1868 - 1970,

Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

50

Dr. Shope sharply retorted, “If you want the stone tumbled off the wagon by one man and

have some broken I will haul them for 9 cents.”6 Shope continued to request the raise

throughout the summer, but the breaking point came when the company was offered eight

cents/cubic foot for hauling the stone by Christian Hershey, a neighboring farmer. Upon

hearing this Shope lashed out:

I was notified a few days since by him (referring to Allen Walton who had replaced Fox as superintendent) that I must hawl the stone at 8 cts., as you were offered hawling at that. On said notice I stopped my team from hawling. I kept hawling during the busy season when no teams could be had, at a loss to myself besides considerable inconvenience for your accommodation, which I now very much doubt any member of the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company would have done for me. And now when every farmer’s team is idle you for the sake of one cent go back on me. I consider this one of the most ungrateful acts any man or any set of men ever done me, besides no gentlemanly trick in my neighbor Hershey. If he wanted the hawling why did he not put in for it in haying and harvest. He knew three months since I would not hawl for less than 9 cts. pr. foot. Now when he has no farm work steps in to take the job.7

Despite this disagreement with the company and the termination of his services,

his remained one of the largest entries on record with the exception of Martin L. Nissley.

This does not preclude that he shipped the second largest amount of stone during the

twenty-eight years that the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company utilized teamsters;

rather it is one of the largest single accounts of record until 1875. For in that time he

transported in excess of 15,722 cubic feet of stone at a cost of approximately $1,312.83 to

the company.8 This account for the month of July, 1868, gives one a fairly good idea

6 Letter of Jacob Shope to Louis Brown, April 1, 1868, Hummelstown Manuscript Group,

Dauphin County Historical Society.

7 Letter of Jacob Shope to Louis Brown, Sept. 30, 1868, Hummelstown Manuscript Group,

Dauphin County Historical Society.

8 Teamster Record of Dr. Jacob Shope, May 28, 1868, Hummelstown Manuscript Group, Dauphin

County Historical Society

51

how much stone a teamster could deliver for the company in a given month. On most

days one to three loads were delivered, but it is difficult to determine whether this is done

by one or more wagons.

Hummelstown, Aug. 1, 1868 To J. Shope, Dr. Penna. Brown Free Stone Co. Hauling Sand Stone July, 1868 Load No. of cubic feet July, 2 1 42 3 1 41 “ 1 45 6 1 47 6 1 47 “ 1 40 7 1 43 “ 1 40 “ 1 37 8 1 38 “ 1 35 21 1 45 “ 1 39 “ 1 43 22 1 45 “ 1 39 1/2 “ 1 40 23 1 39 1/2 25 1 39 “ 1 40 1/4 “ 1 39 30 1 43 “ 1 37 1/2 944 1/2 @ 9 = $84.969

The following chart is indicative of the volume of stone hauled by the teamsters

from 1869 - 1891 with the exception of the years February, 1869, to February, 1873,

which is missing:

9 Ibid. Aug. 1, 1868

52

Teamster Amount of Stone Wage @ 8 cents/ in Cubic Feet Cubic Foot Martin L. Nissley 13,587.5 $1,086.99 13 loads at $3.00/load 39.00 18,154.6 1,452.36 5,863.7 469.08 21,368.0 1,410.87 Total approximately 59,478 4,758.30 Joseph Strickler 4,055 324.44 Total 4,055 324.44 Christian Hershey 2,564.25 205.14 324.75 32.98 Total 2,889.00 238.12 Joseph C. Detweiler 1,578.1 126.31 524.2 41.91 Total 2,102.3 168.23 Wm Ulrich 1,109.6 88.78 94.8 7.56 Total 1,204.4 96.34 Jacob Lehman 417 33.36 292 23.36 ___394_ __ 31.51 Total 1,103 88.23 J. B. Light - Approximately 758 60.65 Joseph Hoffer 547.5 43.80 John Snavely Approximately 443.5 35.47 Pat. Farrell Approximately 126.5 13.00 Joseph Nissley ____ 27 ___2.66 Grand Total - approx. 88,492.2 $7,142.0710

10 See all teamsters’ records with the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company, Hummelstown

Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

53

Although estimates have been made of the amount of stone transported on the

Martin Nissley, Light and Farrell accounts, the total amount spent for wages appears to

be in excess of the amount of stone transported. Two of Jacob Shope’s accounts,

however, were figured on a nine cent/cu. ft. basis which corrects this discrepancy.

When teamsters were not fighting with the company to collect overdue wages or

for an increase in the rates, nature conspired to make things difficult. April rains could

make Quarry/Waltonville Road difficult. Shope reported to Louis Brown on one

occasion, “We have commenced hawling stone this morning. If the stone will be taken

out and the roads get good we will bring them down fast for you.”11 And, as if this was

not enough there was always the unexpected. Writing to T. C. Hutchinson, secretary of

the company, Allen Walton explained, “I came home sooner than I expected when I saw

you. I received word from home all the horses at the quarry were sick, and sure enough I

found them sick when I got home.”12 To compound these difficulties, there had to be an

occasional breakdown or accident with the wagons. It is true that many of these

vicissitudes were the teamsters’ problems, but one must remember that the company had

its own wagons and teamsters handling stone in the area of the pits.

Even after the installation of the Brownstone - Middletown Railroad, the company

was annoyed with teamsters other than its own. William Smith, a Philadelphia teamster,

brought suit against the Waltons for the amount of $400.00 for “being thrown from my

11 Letter of Jacob Shope to Louis Brown, April 2, 1868, Hummelstown Manuscript Group,

Dauphin County Historical Society.

12 Letter of Allen Walton to T. C. Hutchinson, November 17, 1872, Hummelstown Manuscript

Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

54

team by a Guy Rope of a derrick while driving through the entrance and along the

roadway leading into the grounds of the dormitories of the University of Pennsylvania.”13

The completion of the Brownstone - Middletown Railroad brought an end to the

era of the teamster in the Hummelstown Brownstone industry.

On Thursday, June 4th, Mr. Allen Walton will dispose of a lot of mules, horses, wagons, harnesses, etc., used in and about the stone quarries, which are no longer of service since the completion of the new railroad. The sale will be held at the National Hotel in this place, commencing at 2 o’clock. A liberal credit will be given purchasers.14

Teamsters made one appearance with the company after this time. Following the

purchase of the Pennsylvania Brownstone Company Limited in 1890, the Waltons

quarried stone in this small pit for a brief time and called upon the services of teamsters

to haul the stone since there was no track laid back to the quarry. However, this lasted

only a year or two at most.

Brownstone - Middletown Railroad Company

The single greatest improvement in launching the company into its most

productive era was the installation of a standard gauge railroad in 1884 - 1885 from the

pits to the borough of Hummelstown and incorporated as the Brownstone - Middletown

Railroad Company. The residents of Hummelstown and Derry Township followed the

progress of the railroad as it rapidly was laid from the tracks of the Philadelphia and

Reading Railroad at the east end of Hummelstown across fields, through Bull Frog

Valley and west into the quarries.

13 Release: William Smith to Hummelstown Brownstone Company, March 4, 1902,

Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

14 The Hummelstown Sun, May 22, 1885, Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group,

Hummelstown Area and Derry Township Historical Societies.

55

D-2: Locomotive and Gondolas Leaving Quarry – Notice the size of

blocks in comparison to gondola – Berst House is in background

The road is graded from a point a short distance south of the Horseshoe Pike ( U.S. route 322) almost to the quarries, along the line of which will be seen masonry for the bridges, high embankments and deep cuts. At the present rate of construction of the road it will be ready for use in a few months, which will develop the sandstone business in a manner that few minds conceived of a short time ago, or at the time the railroad question was agitated.15

The initial construction was begun in November when the quarries would be

dormant, thus

allowing many

quarrymen to assist in

its building. The

Waltons advertised

for 5,000 chestnut and

oak railroad sills to be

delivered along the

right of way, and by

January sixty workers

were busy grading and laying track with the management predicting that that work force

would be doubled.

The first week in May was a “jubilant day in the history of Hummelstown, “ for

that marked the completion of the branch of rail going to quarry #3 and the shipment of

the first carloads of stone to the sawmill in Hummelstown.16 From this point on the

15 The Hummelstown Sun, loc. cit., March 6, 1885.

16 The Hummelstown Sun, loc. cit., May 8, 1885.

56

D-3: Locomotive of the Brownstone – Middletown Railroad Company Allen K. Walton on right

volume of stone shipped to town increased greatly. The Sun noted that ninety carloads

were shipped in the month of May and by the last week in June sixty carloads were

shipped out in one week. This progress continued until they shipped as many as forty

carloads a day only two years later, thus exceeding the company’s expectations.

In its peak years, 1890 - 1910, the railroad was eventually serviced by six

locomotives run by engineers such as Thomas Jacks, Jr., Edward Tracy and Cassel

Gingrich. Although gondolas to transport stone comprised the greater number of cars,

there were also cars manned with derricks, as well as passenger cars and a “palace and

dining room car“ christened Oakey. The first passenger car on the line had two

compartments to accommodate men and women. Additional passenger service had to be

added for by 1887 they were transporting 200 workers to and from the pits to town.

57

D-4: Brownstone Station

(Photograph courtesy of Charles Wagner)

D-5: Verdelli House

The first station at the junction of the Philadelphia and Reading and Brownstone

railroads was little more than a simple frame platform with a “small frame house.” This

was greatly improved in 1892

when the Waltons erected a

handsome brownstone station

with a slate roof and

galvanized iron trimmings

appropriately named

Brownstone. After its

completion it was connected

to the east end of town by an

“elegant and substantial

boardwalk” so that the

employees would not have

to “plod through mud

hereafter.“17 The old station

was removed and used as a

tool shed. Unfortunately,

Brownstone Station was razed in the 1940‘s, but the stone was used in building the

Verdelli house on East Second Street in Hummelstown.

Following the installation of the railroad, the sawmill was relocated from

Hummelstown to the pits adjacent to quarries #1 and #3. This made it possible to

17 The Hummelstown Sun, loc. cit., March 15, 1889

58

D-6: This general view of quarry #4 shows the various levels at which spurs of the track were laid

so that locomotives, gondolas, and flat cars could serve the site.

centralize the stone cutters and dressers with the rest of the labor force, thus making it

easier to superintend the entire process. This transfer of mills etc. took place throughout

the following year so that by December of 1886 it was complete.

However, the line was not only a working railroad, for it promoted visitation to

the quarries as well. The Waltons ran their first excursion in May of 1885 for the officers

and directors of the Hummelstown National Bank, and from that point on the railroad

boosted the number of visitors that arrived at the quarries. The second major excursion

was held in celebration of the 4th of July of that same year when Allen Walton invited all

the townspeople for a free ride on the train to see the quarries. By December of 1887 the

business had as many as 100 visitors on a Sunday, and an old photograph illustrated men

in suits and women in ankle length white dresses and with hats meticulously in place

scaling ladders on the face of a quarry.

59

As in all railway yards and lines, the Brownstone - Middletown Railroad had its

occasional runaway car, collision, or derailment. Injuries occurred, and in a few cases

fatalities such as the one reported by The Sun in March of 1888.

A most distressing accident occurred on last Friday evening at the junction of the Philadelphia and Reading and the Brownstone Railroads. It appears that at the time of the accident they were in the act of shifting cars. A number of men were standing at the rear end of a gondola car when the engine was backed and by a sudden and violent jerk or motion four of the men were thrown to the track. One was plunged in the middle of the track and thus made a miraculous escape, as a number of cars passed directly over him without touching his body. One of the party, however, was less fortunate. John Reigel, son of Samuel Reigel of Chambers Hill, fell directly on the rail and in a second the ponderous wheels of the moving train had passed over his body and crushed him in such a horrible manner that he lived but a few moments. ---18

The specific cause of the following action is unknown, but with the possibility of

accidents occurring between the railroad and stone operations the Waltons were faced

with a liability problem which they finally solved in 1917. As a family operation with

office holders of both companies being similar, any possibility of the stone company

bringing suit against the railroad company was averted, for at a special meeting of the

Board of Directors of the Hummelstown Brownstone Company executed the following

release:

For and in consideration of the accommodation, advantages, and conveniences received by the Hummelstown Brownstone Company from the Brownstone - Middletown Railroad Company, in carrying, shifting, and transporting passengers and freight, or other materials used in the operation of the said works or otherwise, in and about the property and plant of the said Hummelstown Brownstone Company, that the president and secretary of the Hummelstown Brownstone Company are hereby authorized and directed to execute a release to the Brownstone -

18 The Hummelstown Sun, loc. cit., March 9, 1888

60

Middletown Railroad Company as requested, under the corporate seal of the company.19

Just as the brownstone industry was reaching its peak in Hummelstown, Hershey

became the site of a

chocolate corporation that

would become the primary

industry in Derry Township

and the surrounding area.

Milton Hershey and Allen

K. Walton had conflicting

interests on one occasion,

and this was in respect to

rail

transportation. In 1903

Hershey was in the process

of building his electric

Hummelstown -

Campbelltown Street

Railroad, and in so doing he

had to receive permission from the Waltons for right-of-way across the Brownstone -

Middletown Railroad tracks. Walton attempted an arrangement whereby Hershey would

be liable for any accident whether or not it was the fault of his company or not.

19 Hummelstown Brownstone Company, Minutes of Meetings of Board of Directors, December

10, 1917, p. 114 Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.

D-7: As men load this monolith onto a flatcar, it is easily seen how accidents occurred when one considers the obstacles in the foreground and the apparent speed

with which the men are moving.

61

Hershey’s legal council, lawyer John H. Snyder of Lancaster, worked out an arrangement

that was equitable and, at the same time, agreeable to Walton.

The Brownstone - Middletown Railroad Company was the last concern of the

Waltons to be liquidated. This was done almost ten years after the dissolution of the

Hummelstown Brownstone Company. This time lapse was probably necessary in that

there was a considerable amount of stone already quarried in the form of rough stone,

scabbled stone, and cut stone (jambs, lintels, sills, steps, etc.) which could be shipped off

the premises. There were also bricks on hand to be sold as well. Then too, there was the

railroad equipment itself which they hoped to sell: rails, ties, cars, and locomotives.

Inquiries from the Interstate Commerce Commission as to the classification of the

railroad hastened its liquidation. In a series of correspondence between Allen K. Walton

and the I. C. C. from September 10, 1934, to April 18, 1935,20 the matter was settled, and

the Brownstone - Middletown Railroad Company was officially dissolved on July 10,

1939.21

20 Correspondence of Allen K. Walton to the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1934 - 1935,

Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society

21 Brownstone - Middletown Railroad Company, Minutes of the Meetings of the Board of

Directors, July 10, 1939, p. 58, Hummelstown Brownstone Manuscript Group, Dauphin County Historical Society.